The headline of the religion section of one Danish newspaper last month read, “Gud elsker de middelmådige.” It means “God loves the mediocre.” The article went on to describe the visit of some Danish clergymen to the United States. In essence, the article said that the churches visited by the clergy were amazingly mediocre. What’s ironic is that the Danish church isn’t any better. But that’s really the point: We are only concerned with fitting in with those around us. At the most, we want to appear a little more devout than those surrounding us.

Is being mediocre in our faith acceptable? I would say not. While such exertion is difficult, the Christian walk is one of constantly pushing forward.

Uphill

You’re on roller-skates (or some other vehicle with wheels) on a hill. It’s very steep, and the top seems to never get closer. You can see it, with the sun rising over it, but you feel as though you aren’t making any progress towards it. You look around. Surrounding you are others on roller-skates, traveling up this same insurmountable mountain with you.

Suddenly wondering why you’re exerting so much effort in a seemingly useless endeavor, you make your way to a fellow skater. “Excuse me,” you say as the sweat pours from your brow. The other person turns and smiles as they two strain to make their way up the hill.

“Hey! How are you?” they cry, as though the sweaty, panting person actually knew you.

“Uh…fine, thanks,” you reply, confused. “Could I ask you a question?”

“Sure, shoot away, but don’t stop working,” came the reply.

Even more perplexed, you continue regardless, “Why exactly are we skating up this stupid mountain?”

“What a silly question! Don’t you know? There’s a great reward for all of us at the top, and there we will rest forever with our King!”

Seeing several stopping their work to rest, you think I don’t care enough about that silly prize to keep going now. I’m too tired. Besides, all these people are stopping too; I don’t want to stand out. I’ll just rest here for awhile. So, you do.

Now you tell me: will you stay where you are, will you go forward, or will you go downhill.

Explanation

This is one of the very valuable things my mom (a very wise woman) has helped me see. The Christian life is an uphill battle. If you stop pressing forward, even for a moment, you go backwards. One cannot really “be” a Christian, because the Christian walk is so active that an anemic state of being verb is inadequate to describe it. We are to be constantly pushing forward.

I said that if we don’t push forward, we slide backwards. You may have taken issue with that. If you did, I completely understand. This backsliding is sometimes hard to detect (especially in our own hearts), but it is there. Keep in mind that you are most likely surrounded by others who have stopped moving forward, so it would be very easy to gauge your walk by those around you, convincing yourself that you are doing just fine.

This acceptance of mediocrity must change if we are to be all we are meant to be in Christ. We must be fully for Him or fully against him. We can no longer sit on the fence. The CCM group Casting Crowns, in their latest album, have a song called Somewhere in the Middle (Please listen to it here) that captures this concept very well.

What Happened to Grace

Of course, it is very easy to adopt a legalistic, do-it-in-your-own-strength mentality in talking about this. As always, we must be careful to keep that difficult balance between works and grace, legalism and licentiousness. I would say that the only remedy is to truly process this with God and press on towards Him, soaking in His Word and relying on his strength.

What about you?

• Have you noticed this dynamic of “if not uphill, then downhill” in your Christian walk?
• What steps have you taken, if any, to counteract that entropy?
• Do you see it as a problem that we often settle for mediocrity?
• What advice to you have for remaining grace-based in the fight against mediocrity?